New Delhi, March 10 -- Electric scooter maker Ather Energy plans to increase its sales network in the country to over 1,000 stores in a year's time, surpassing rival Ola Electric's retail footprint and signalling a doubling-down on distribution. At a meeting with analysts from Nuvama Institutional Equities last week, Ather's management said that it is targetting around 1,100 stores by March 2027, up from 700 in March 2026 - meaning it expects to average more than one store opening a day. An executive directly aware of the matter said that the number of Ather stores is likely to be more than target after the debut of its new scooters based on the EL platform, as its new architecture has been named. "After the launch of EL platform by mid of FY27, it is likely that the company will add around 500 stores so the total store count can reach over 1,200 stores in the next financial year," the executive said. Ather unveiled its new EL platform last year in August on which its future scooters will be built. The EL platform allows the company to launch a suite of products, ranging from family oriented scooters to sporty performance models, over five years. Ola Electric, dealing with losses and slowing sales, is shrinking its network from about 4,000 stores to around 700, it informed investors in February after the release of its December quarter earnings. Ather is set to double store count to 700 this financial year from 350 in fiscal 2025. A target of at least 1,100 by the end of March 2027 suggests that it would have added 750 stores or more in two years. The latest move by Tarun Mehta-led Ather comes after the Bengaluru company overtook crosstown rival Ola Electric in quarterly revenue, volume sales, and market valuation in the last six months. For two consecutive quarters, Q2 and Q3 FY26, Ather's total revenue of Rs.941 crore and Rs.996 crore surpassed Ola Electric's Rs.756 crore and Rs.504 crore. Since Ather's listing in May 2025, the company's shares have surged by 118% while Ola Electric' shares have fallen by 51%. Nifty Auto has surged by 14% in the same period. Ather Energy and Ola Electric did not respond to emailed queries on the expansion of the former's network. Analysts note that the addition of new stores is directly aiding expansion of market share for Ather which ranked number three on the EV two wheeler leader board in calendar year 2025. "Network expansion has directly translated to strong market share gains with all-India share rising from 7.6% in Q1FY25 to 18.8% in Q3FY26," Raghunandhan NL, Manav Shah and Rahul Kumar, analysts at Nuvama, wrote in a 6 March note. According to data from Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (Fada), Ather ended calendar year 2025 with 200,797 e-scooter sales or a growth of 59%. In comparison, Ola Electric saw its sales halve to 199,318 units as it tumbled to fourth position from first in calendar 2024. TVS Motor Co. led EV two-wheeler sales with 298,881 electric scooters followed by Bajaj Auto with 269,847 units in 2025. Hero MotoCorp ranked fifth with 109,168 units, Fada data showed. The scale of its bigger rivals, which also have petrol-fuelled scooters and motorcycles in their product portfolio, means that getting its dealer network right is crucial for Ather, an expert said. "Distribution is necessary to get customer confidence, particularly in service. Ola tried a different model of directly owning sales stores but service problems mounted," said Subhabrata Sengupta, partner at Avalon Consulting. "It makes sense for Ather to go deeper market by market. It need not be region by region but can also be going deeper city-wise." Sengupta argues that while faster addition of stores can aid Ather, "but too fast can create service gaps"....